Luis van Rooten, an American film actor, was born in Mexico City on November 29, 1906. He was christened Luis d'Antin van Rooten.

He earned his BA at the University of Pennsylvania and worked as an architect before deciding to pursue film work in Hollywood sometime during World War II. His facility with languages made van Rooten an in-demand military radio announcer during the war and he conducted a variety of broadcasts in Italian, Spanish and French. This led naturally into film work, often in roles requiring an accent or skill with dialects. He is particularly known for his villainous roles, and played Nazi ringleader Heinrich Himmler in both Hitler's Madman (1943) and Operation Eichmann (1961).

Van Rooten played supporting roles with a wide swath of film stars, including Alan Ladd in Two Years Before the Mast (1946) and Beyond Glory (1948), Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, Maureen O'Sullivan, and Ray Milland in The Big Clock (1948), Veronica Lake in Saigon (1948), Edward G. Robinson in The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948), and Kirk Douglas and Eleanor Parker in Detective Story 1951.

As the 1950s arrived, van Rooten found steady work in live television, radio serials and in narration. He was the voice of the evil Roxor in the late 40s revival of the radio serial "Chandu the Magician". He also performed on Broadway in Eugene O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet (1958) and John Osborne's Luther (1963).

He is best-known for his character work in films, but van Rooten was also a skilled artist and designer and the author of several sophisticated books of humor. These include Van Rooten's Book of Improbable Saints (Viking, 1975), The Floriculturist's Vade Mecum of Exotic and Recondite Plants, Shrubs and Grasses, and One Malignant Parasite (Doubleday, 1973), and Mots D'Heures: Gousses, Rames (Viking, 1967, ISBN 978-0140057300). In Mots D'Heures', Van Rooten used French words and phrases which, when spoken aloud with a French accent produce English Mother Goose rhymes.

Van Rooten died June 17, 1973 in Chatham, Massachusetts, where he and his family had a vacation home.

Ethnic bald-domed character actor Luis Van Rooten was born November 29, 1906, in Mexico City, but raised in the United States and would become known in post-war Hollywood as a specialist in multiple dialects. Studying at the University of Pennsylvania, he received his B.A. and set up a sturdy practice as an architect before making a dramatic transition into acting sometime during WWII. He built up his reputation initially on stage at the Cleveland Playhouse, then in radio serials, notably playing the titular sleuth in "The Adventures of Nero Wolfe." He also did special French, Italian and Spanish broadcasts during the war After serving in the Armed Forces, he settled into post-war films, playing outright villains or slick, shady suspects. Interestingly, he bookended his film career impersonating the nefarious Nazi ringleader Heinrich Himmeler (1900-1945), who organized the extermination of millions of Jews during the Third Reich, in the films Hitler's Madman (1943) and Operation Eichmann (1961). In between he backed up the various studio's top stars including Alan Ladd (I) in the rugged adventures Two Years Before the Mast (1946), Beyond Glory (1948) and Saigon (1948); Ray Milland and Charles Laughton in the exceptional film noir Big Clock, The (1948); and Edward G. Robinson in Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948). One notable exception from the usual villainous typecast was his role as a plainclothes cop in the classic film Detective Story (1951). By the 1950's Van Rooten had moved with ease into TV drama, performing in a number of live dramas during its vital "Golden Age." None of his regular work in TV series, however, including "One Man's Family" (1949) and "Major Dell Conway of the Flying Tigers" (1951) panned out or led to stardom, all lasting a season or less. His slick, cultivated tones were nevertheless utilized quite frequently in various documentaries and narrative projects. In later years (the 1960s), Van Rooten was seen less and less. He eventually retired during the decade to become an author and expert on horticultural subjects. He also enjoyed painting as a creative sideline. He died in 1973 at the age of 66 of unreported causes in Massachusetts.